Globalstar Broadband Plan Leaves Many Questions, Panelists Say

Not many issues can get Google, Microsoft and NCTA on the same side of the table like Globalstar's proposal for the FCC to create a private Wi-Fi channel in the 2.4 GHz band. Microsoft and the New America Foundation's Open Technology Institute organized a panel about Globalstar's terrestrial low-power service proposal, with the panelists each raising questions about or criticizing TLPS. "It's not that we're all convinced it won't work," said Russell Fox of Mintz Levin, counsel to the Wi-Fi Alliance. "There's been no meaningful demonstration from an engineering basis that it will work."

Globalstar has faced widespread opposition to its TLPS broadband plan in docket 13-213 (see 1505290019). Tuesday's panel was an overview of Globalstar's 2012 proposal and its opponents. Absent from the discussion was Globalstar, which was invited, said Michael Calabrese, director of the New America Foundation's Wireless Future Project. "They didn't want to be by themselves, but nobody wanted to defend them." In a subsequent written statement, Globalstar said some of the naysayers on the panel are rivals to the company's hoped-for broadband service.

The 2.4 GHz band is used for everything from multiple public Wi-Fi channels, Zigbee and Bluetooth to microwave ovens. Globalstar's TLPS would use 20 MHz from 2,473-2,495 MHz -- with about half of that spectrum currently being unlicensed, Calabrese said. Globalstar says its broadband channel would relieve Wi-Fi congestion, but "it'd do just the opposite" because the company hasn't shown products using the company's channel would be interoperable with other Wi-Fi networks, or vice versa, Fox said. "What we're talking about is a complete stepping on [Wi-Fi] Channel 11," said Alex Phillips, vice president-Wireless Internet Service Providers Association. It could create more interference if Globalstar decided to use that slice of spectrum for LTE instead of Wi-Fi, Phillips said.

If there could be good assurances TLPS would not cause such interference, "we'd be having a very different conversation than we're having," said Paul Caritj of Harris Wiltshire, counsel to NCTA. Meanwhile, from a public policy standpoint, giving Globalstar that slice of spectrum is somewhat akin to giving public park land to someone building a private country club, said Andrew Clegg, spectrum engineering lead for Google. "That should be opened up to the unlicensed community ... or auctioned off, not just given to Globalstar."

Google and Microsoft are more Globalstar competitors than critics, the satellite company said. Pointing to Google's Project Fi mobile service, Microsoft's plans for expanding its Wi-Fi service, and cable industry plans to expand its Wi-Fi access points, Globalstar said in a statement that it hopes "government policy makers will enable all organizations, and not just large players with significant lobbying forces, to provide new innovations." When asked Tuesday about interference fears, Globalstar said an FCC-hosted demonstration in early March "showed that TLPS has no negative impact on unlicensed services" (see 1503110046). "We are not asking to be given a piece of unlicensed spectrum. We are not even asking for the exclusive use of that portion of the unlicensed spectrum," the company said. "This unlicensed spectrum will continue to be available for current and future unlicensed uses. We are simply asking for authority to also use that unlicensed spectrum just like anyone else can with the exception that we can interfere into our licensed satellite services, but do so in a managed fashion to minimize any impact on those licensed services."